Parador (Juggernaut #2)

Sixty

The roar of the atmosphere faded as the Valkyries passed through the upper mesosphere of the planet and crossed the unmarked boundary into the silence of space.

Tila and Malachi had already set their autopilots to lock onto the Celato beacon. Ellie preferred to fly under manual control for as long as possible, but once they were on the right heading, she too switched on the autopilot, and relaxed into the seat.

She wriggled, trying to get comfortable and trying also to shake off the feeling the seat was somehow holding on to her. Jayce and Malachi had both explained why things felt so tight, and assured her she would get used to it, but it was so different from the racer she knew so well, Ellie wasn't sure she could.

On the other hand, the Valkyrie certainly felt faster and nimbler than anything she had flown before, so it wasn't all bad.

She remembered she was not the only one who needed comforting and opened a channel to Tila's ship. Ellie watched the light blink red on her console. She looked right to try and catch Tila's eye through the canopy. Tila was staring at her own console but not answering.

Ellie watched Tila through the glass and vacuum, willing her friend to respond. Finally, she saw Tila sigh and reach forward. Ellie's comms indicator turned green.

'What?' Tila asked. She didn't turn to look at Ellie.

'Are you okay?' Ellie asked gently. She could see Tila nodding, but Ellie wondered if that was to convince herself as much as anyone else.

'No,' said Tila, after some thought.

'I'm sorry it didn't work.'

'I wish I knew why,' Tila said. 'What did we do wrong? We had the proof, but Conway stole it. They didn't even look at it.'

'But we got it back.'

'To do what with it? We told people what we found, people I thought would care, but they don't. They don't care, Ellie. They took it from us, and then they tried to kill us.'

'We don't know they were trying to kill us,' Ellie said hopefully.

'They were shooting at us, Ellie. That's not how you make friends.'

'But we're okay now. We can try again, can't we? There must be other investors.'

'All the major investors were on Parador. If they don't want to know then how can we convince anyone else?' Tila fell silent for a moment, then added, 'This was a bad idea. We shouldn't have come.'

Ellie nodded sadly. Maybe going home was the right decision. It seemed no one wanted to answer their questions.

A blinking light caught her attention. Malachi was trying to join the conversation. Ellie opened the channel, and could see Tila reaching for her own controls to do likewise.

'I know where the Far Horizon went,' Malachi said excitedly.

'You do?' said Ellie.

'What? How?' said Tila.

'I've been looking at Conway's data. He added more information. He has the cypher. I can decrypt the jump destination. And there's something else, I found a ship IFF code.'

'Tell me,' said Tila.

'But we shouldn't go there. It's too dangerous.'

'Go where?' asked Ellie

'Tell me!' Tila demanded again.

'Praxis.'

'The Dead Fleet? Who goes there? What's even out there?' said Ellie.